Renting a sewing machine from the library

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260618-the-weird-and-wonderful-libraries-of-finland

by sohkamyung • 1 month ago

349 225 1 month ago

Avicebron• 1 month ago

One of the libraries near me has kayaks for loan as well as picking up the slack when all of the funding for after school programs was slashed. The value of third spaces is slowly creeping back into the public mindspace, but not enough.

delichon2• 1 month ago

I'd argue that sewing machines are among the most complex, high skill items found in a typical home, above the laptop and car. I find it very hard to keep mine operational. I struggle with it a lot more than I sew with it. They require fine motor skills and scads of parts and supplies. If you plan to rent them, plan for a repair staff or frequent replacements.

Compared to a book, a sewing machine is a space ship, and you should see what people can do to a book. To be sustainable it needs a replacement value deposit, which isn't easy for someone who can't afford an entry level model.

calvinmorrison• 1 month ago

Yes and no. I can stitch. I regularly do adjust clothes. I am a bad amateur. It's crazy what my neighbor does (She has a industrial sewing machine) and does piece finish work. It's a real skill.

However, I highly recommend everyone get and learn how to perform basic stitches because hand stitching is a lot hard to get a good quality stitch out of, especially for doing things like repairs in areas that wear.

criddell• 1 month ago

I bought a sewing machine a five years ago and I haven’t had to do any maintenance or repairs to it. What kinds of things are breaking on your machine?

delichon2• 1 month ago

I only use it a couple of times per year, and simply threading it is a genuine challenge for me. So is keeping a stich running. People who sew more or have good fine motor skill may just not remember the noob experience. I expect a lot of new renters to have a learning curve to climb.

2muchcoffeeman• 1 month ago

I bought mine 10 years ago, maybe longer. Never had to do anything. Super useful when we need it.

felooboolooomba2• 1 month ago

Opposite experience. I studied mine extensively when I got it. I rarely have problems. But it's definitely a mechanical wonder.

teaearlgraycold• 1 month ago

You have confused high maintenance with complex. Not to belittle sewing machines, which are very cool and not exactly simple.

markdown• 1 month ago

Get yourself an old Singer. They're the Toyota of sewing machines.

AngryData• 1 month ago

Sewing machines are complex, but ive had experiences both ways with them. One model I had endless troubles with both getting to run and keep running well, but then ive had others that are seemingly bulletproof. At my family's cabin my great-grandmother had a foot powered one that to this day works flawlessly and has never seen any maintenance or repairs ive ever seen and she use to make tons of quilts on it. I don't use it much these days but I do squirt a bit of oil on it every few years and make sure it is still working.

krisoft• 1 month ago

Have you considered that maybe your sewing machine is faulty in some way? Either the model or the particular instance of it.

I’m also a complete sewing machine noob. We have a sewing machine at our hackspace, someone gave me a minute long tutorial and I had zero trouble with it afterwards. I think the whole “tutorial” was just: follow the arrows when threading it, don’t push down the pedal when your finger is under the needle. And it just worked as it should.

Maybe i just got lucky! But my experience was so different from yours that it made me think that maybe your sewing machine is either bad quality or has some hidden defect.

bregma• 1 month ago

It depends.

We have a few sewing machines that are finicky. Tension goes off rapidly, binds a lot, lint buildup constantly has to be cleaned, clunks mysteriously sometimes. We also have a Singer manufactured in 1899 that just does what it's supposed to reliably (and you can still get parts for it!). Now mind you, it doesn't do fancy stitches or buttonholing or anything but straight stitching and a basic zigzag and you do have to keep the treadle properly lubricated but it even works during a power failure.

Sewing machines, like stand mixers and vacuum cleaners, in the end are power tools as much as radial arm saws, hammer drills, and routers are. It's great to have all the fancy features, but sometimes lowest tech is the best.

stevenwoo• 1 month ago

The sewing machine stays in that library so I’m going to make the assumption they have a bit of in house expertise for advice and counsel - they have a photo of the anecdote in question and it’s only a starting point on how Finland is trying to use libraries to promote society and democracy by providing tools and spaces and opportunities - you might be focusing too much on minutiae - one of the librarians speaks about the ways they work to increase library use. There’s a short contrast with the USA and UK closing libraries in recent years and one of the librarians interviewed moved to Finland from the UK - that may also be a reason the BBC went with this story.

mauvehaus6• 1 month ago

Virtually every user-serviceable problem can be solved by one of the following:

Reading the fine manual and making sure the machine is threaded correctly.

Replacing the needle.

Adjusting the tension, starting with getting the bobbin tension grossly correct, then balancing it with the top tension. <- This is not hard; it's just that most people haven't been taught[0].

Removing the accumulated lint from the bobbin driver and feed dogs.

Lubricating the machine.

If none of those work, have it serviced. If the service person tells you the machine is crap, go to a thrift shop and buy a Singer 66, 99, 15 or equivalent Japanese clone for $25-$100. For a little more money, you can get a 201. A Featherweight is a joy to use and takes up no space in storage, but is much costlier than any of the above options.

Don't buy a slant shank machine (400 or 500 series); that was an evolutionary dead-end. If you absolutely need a machine that zigzags, ask the service person what they recommend.

[0] This is applicable to Singer class 15 machines and their clones, but the general principles apply to any lockstitch machine:

https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/manuals/ha-...

If you have a transverse shuttle (you almost certainly don't) or a vibrating shuttle (you probably don't), you may need to look up information specific to your machine.

felooboolooomba2• 1 month ago

If you went into programming because you like making things, odds are high you'll like sewing too. Speaking from experience.

ranger207• 1 month ago

What kind of stuff do you make sewing? About the only think I've ever wanted to sew was a new pocket on a jacket

galleywest200• 1 month ago

Throw pillows out of old t-shirts.

analog31• 1 month ago

My family has one. I'm not sure we'd get one if we didn't already have it. With that said, I've repaired clothing, backpacks, and a fairly expensive musical instrument case. For the latter repairs, I broke a few needles, and had to work the mechanism by hand, a stitch at a time, because the motor wasn't strong enough, but it got the job done.

As for making things, curtains. They're not hard because they're rectangular, and mainly just need cutting and hemming, but the result is sizes and materials that would require buying something custom made.

Cerium• 1 month ago

Camping gear, hammocks, bags, any small change or repair. Strap breaks on a backpack, fix it. Pocket rips, fix it.

probably_wrong3• 1 month ago

I started sewing because I wanted to make a Guybrush Threepwood costume for Halloween. I'm currently making a bag and the next items in the pipeline are a couple summer shirts and a custom cover for a camera lens I have. I also brought my sewing machine to a kid's birthday party to make small plushies with the kids.

I've also repaired a non-insignificant number of clothes from friends and family. I know I used to roll my eyes when people used terms like "upcycling", but I have to say that I've come around since.

skiboyec• 1 month ago

Outdoor equipment, if you’re into that sorta thing. I didn’t know anything and I think my second backpack was nice enough to use.

Also laminated fabrics tend to be much easier to sew since they are so rigid

klondike_klive• 1 month ago

I made a hat - an old one was getting threadbare so I used a seam ripper to take it apart, drew around the parts onto new fabric, and sewed the parts together. The brim was a bit tricky and the stitching isn't super straight because of the thick canvas (also, I wish I'd made it out of thinner material) but I get a kick out of saying I made it!

a966• 1 month ago

Most of the things I've made are probably bags and covers or other containers for things. You can make the designs very simple with some thought and bespoke sizes are often useful and impossible to buy.

Upholstery would be really interesting, but it seems that materials I would like (tough, not plastic) are essentially impossible to find here. And I'm often tempted to see if I could make some simple plain clothing because it seems that the shop selections just keep getting worse every year. Either that or actually find myself a tailor.

someone_eu• 24 days ago

Bags, wallets, etc are quite fun, and you can find lots of options from the easy "two rectangles and a handle" to some clever backpacks and custom bags to hold specific items.

It is quite cool to have a bag with custom pockets designed specifically for the things you actually own and carry often, in the color and fabric _you_ like.

Clothes are harder as you need to learn how to fit them. But doable.

And pattern construction (aka "drafting") is a whole separate engineering discipline. Check freesewing.eu for inspiration.

cyberrock• 1 month ago

In my experience it will also make you appreciate aspects of physical production that don't apply to programming. For example, how precisely you need to cut fabric and join/pin/baste fabric together before you sew such that it looks nice. I'm glad I don't need to reckon millimeter precision on a ruler for my job.

sitzkrieg• 1 month ago

working with your hands and developing physical craftsmanship is unbeatable

erelong• 1 month ago

there's things like "tool libraries" and it might be good to see more lending beyond books;

some of the libraries I've seen have morphed more into like makerspaces and/or meeting spaces rather than just places to get books

queenkjuul9• 1 month ago

Tool libraries rock, i think this model could work really well for lots of things especially in big cities.

I am blessed with a huge apartment but even i have to make decisions about what tools to keep around given the space. Yeah i could buy something from harbor freight and use it once and donate to the thrift store, but how much better if my neighbors and i could just share a big collection of stuff we all might need once every year or two

justinclift• 1 month ago

There's at least one in Melbourne, Australia (near the CBD) too: https://www.brunswicktoollibrary.org

iberator• 1 month ago

Sewing machines are great for computer people: you can train your fashion sense and motor skills(!) - most 'nerds' lack it :)

Also it's an incredible women magnet :)

nntwozz• 1 month ago

Hey baby, wanna see my sewing machine? I can add a gusset anywhere you want.

kaikai• 1 month ago

Forget about gussets, I can offer pockets

ElijahLynn• 1 month ago

My local library which is part of the Washington county Library system (next to Portland). It's where Hillsboro is, which is where Intel's manufacturing is, also called Silicon Forest, has a Library Of Things!

I've checked out a KitchenAid stand mixer, synthesizer, guitar, stud finder, drum machine, ukulele, air quality detector, and many more things.

They also have a sewing machine and a. Vitamix.

It's amazing! I love being able to check out new things from our library!

I think there's an effort towards tool checkout as well in the future! There's a tool library in a couple cities east of us as well that I keep hearing about!

PDX has it going on!!!

tonypapousek• 1 month ago

The Washington County library system is excellent; I love that one card will get you access to the entire area.

rfarley04• 1 month ago

That's my library system too! I go to tualatin and it has a dedicated room for their makerlab and have classes every day for all kinds of stuff. Whenever I go in its pretty well attended.

erikschoster• 1 month ago

Our little town in Minnesota has some of these too (https://winona.lib.mn.us/library-of-things/) it's really cool! There's also a new maker space getting set up now which will have a tool library open to the community.

xattt• 1 month ago

Libraries of Things are a thing now. The items that are most useful are those that lend things that you use from once a year to every couple of years.

My local library (PEI Library Service) has a telescope, radon detector, a basic (and I mean basic) toolkit, some gardening tools among other things. The collection has a couple of surprises, but mostly underwhelming.

I did request something more practical, like a bicycle disc brake flushing kit, but this has not happened yet.

bombcar3• 1 month ago

Auto part stores often will lend both weird and specialized tools, and relatively basic ones, too.

Usually the way it works is you "buy" the tool and then "return" it.

lostlogin4• 1 month ago

a bicycle disc brake flushing kit

With the right gear, the job is still horrible. SRAM brakes give me an unlimited number of maintenance chores.

mauvehaus6• 1 month ago

I can hardly think of a worse thing than a bleed kit to lend out from a library. They're full of small parts to lose, and they'll never be clean once you use them. And you don't want people mixing up the DOT and mineral oil bleed kits.

I have worked in a bike shop as a mechanic, and we periodically ended up misplacing the various adapters. This is in a place where everybody using the kit is getting paid to do the job and has been trained. The librarians would go nuts just replacing O-rings and adapters that people had lost.

If you need one for your specific bike, you're probably as well off just buying the one you need from e.g. bleedzone.com [0]. Most of them are around or under $25, and if it's your kit, you always know who the last idiot to use it was :-)

[0] I haven't bought from them, but probably will when I need one. The shop I worked in has sadly closed.

jurgenburgen• 1 month ago

The local library system has in addition to niche services like 3d printers and circuit card printers a humongous board game collection. You can reserve a board game online, it eventually appears at your local branch of the library and then you check it out for 2 weeks.

Really great way to test before you buy.

happyPersonR• 1 month ago

Do they have a fusion splicer ? I know it might seem random… but I feel like might come in clutch in the future

Plasmoid• 1 month ago

My local library has been running a tool lender library for quite a while. It's quite popular as it rents out both manual and electric tools. This is great when you need an extension ladder but don't want to own an extension ladder.

bobbytheblkbear• 1 month ago

This only works in a high-trust society.

UtopiaPunk• 1 month ago

I think society only works in a high trust society. Well, maybe something exists functionally in low trust society, but it sounds miserable.

imthias404• 1 month ago

your username is fitting.

monssooon6• 1 month ago

There are also surveillance societies with social scores so when you break the sewing machine you lose points and cannot get to borrow it again

redwood• 1 month ago

Berkeley had a very cool tool lending library

dredmorbius• 1 month ago

"Had"?

ihaveajob• 1 month ago

Has. I can confirm.

Telaneo• 1 month ago

I really wish my local libraries would offer things like this. I do own a sewing machine, and even if I didn't, I could probably call on a friend if I did need one, but there are several other categories of things this doesn't apply as much too: gardening tools, ladders, skis, a wheelbarrow. If I could just pop in a library and come back when I'm done, that'd be really convenient.

I can borrow CDs, DVDs, records, sheet music, games, but those were probably a pretty logical continuation of lending out books, so the jump to random items is probably one that needs justification to the people higher up the chain. Hopefully this will serve as a good example.

queenkjuul9• 1 month ago

There are some tool libraries where i live specifically for big or expensive stuff like ladders, power saws, etc; stuff most people need once every few years but don't want to keep in their apartment

Telemakhos• 1 month ago

Why do the pictures with this article feel so weird? Like, the first one is of a guy in Finland reading a book with an English title while standing in front of a shelf full of books with English titles.

wzdd• 1 month ago

Oodi is at least equally community / maker space and library, very distinctively and attractively designed, quite new, and in the middle of Helsinki, so there are a lot of non Finnish speakers visiting so there is a large English section.

f4k3Ng4y• 1 month ago

Manufactured reality

queenkjuul9• 1 month ago

70% of Finns speak English

bcraven• 1 month ago

Would you prefer it on a Finnish webpage?

https://oodihelsinki.fi/mita-oodilaiset-lukevat-syyskuussa/a...

antupis• 1 month ago

There is lots of English/Swedish books in average Finnish library.

yakkomajuri• 1 month ago

Finnish libraries are fantastic. Many had free-to-use 3D printers as far back as 2012!

Libraries are a place of possibilities and fun, and it makes people want to be there. You can imagine the long-term positive impact this has.

netsharc• 1 month ago

The Deichman Library in Bjørvika, Oslo, Norway (they named their public library after a businessman/book collector who donated his books to the city) is basically a hangout space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT1xI7SSdLo

whycombinetor• 1 month ago

Denver has this... nominally. 3 machines (2 in circulation, one is a "Display"). 4 week checkout period. 103 current holds. 103*4/2/12 ≈ 17 year wait time.

dhosek2• 1 month ago

That theoretical wait time doesn’t usually end up being so long. Between borrowers returning things early, people on the wait list giving up and most importantly, the library deciding that the current inventory is insufficient, the wait times usually are much less than that (I’ve observed this with books and other materials at my local library and the wait on in-demand times is never as long as the queue would imply).

bombcar3• 1 month ago

Books yes, DVDs yes.

But we can check out a Netflix Roku, and the wait time really is what it says on the tin + a bit more; which works out to about once a year, which is about what we need ...

wafflemaker• 1 month ago

In the equation there seems to be a typo;

103 - number of ppl in queue, 4 - up to X weeks per person, 2 - number of machines 12 - ??

Maybe you initially wanted to use full months for how long a person can hold an item, but then switched to weeks, and accidently still used number of months to get the number of years?

Anyway, for an imprecise number, you can do with months - 104*1/2/12 ~4.3y.

For more precise result, use seconds, as that's the unit used for the precise length of the year. Year is not 365 days. It's actually longer, quoting Wikipedia for (tropical) year,

Approximately 365 solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds

That gives

  104 * (4 * 7 * 24 * 60 * 60) /2 /(((365 * 24 + 5) * 60 + 48) * 60 + 45)

Which results in 3.986 years. At maximum. Much less than 17!

Edit: getting asterikses * right

asdfologist• 1 month ago

Why was this downvoted? The math checks out. Multiplying by 4 and then dividing by 12 is wrong.

Easy way to verify this: assume only 1 person in the queue and only 1 machine. Then the original calculation yields 4/12 of a year, even though the actual wait time is (about) 1/12 of a year.

cge• 1 month ago

These sorts of services do seem very dependent on the details of how they are organized.

I’ve had experience with two university libraries with 3d printers. They both advertise them similarly, and they were nominally similar services, ostensibly letting students and staff both 3d print and learn about 3d printing.

At one, the arrangement was that they’d show you around the machines, give you a link to a list of notes and rules, and then you could come in and use the printers. If you wanted to do something unusual or use an exorbitant amount of filament, they asked that you talk to them first. That service is what initially introduced me to 3d printing.

At the other, the library staff decided they’d rather handle everything themselves. You’d submit an stl, then they’d print it at some point, potentially weeks later. Random color pla only, no slicing and providing gcode or even requests for settings. In practice staff decided they would only accept links to popular stls online; submitting your own stl would be rejected. They printed at such bad settings that everything would come out horribly. The service was worse than useless, taught nothing, and may well have turned many students off 3d printing entirely, if they thought the results were indicative of what 3d printing could do. We essentially have to warn students that the service is not practically usable.

But both, of course, say they have 3d printers.

LeonB• 1 month ago

That doesn’t seem right - off the top of my head I think it’s more like 4 years? maybe it should be “103*4/2/52” (not “/12”) ?

… hopefully the effective wait time is considerably shorter if a long line is taken as a demand signal, leading them to buy more.

christiancoomer• 1 month ago

While the wait time to rent a machine may be long (I didn't even know Denver had this,) Denver also has the ideaLAB maker spaces at five branches, all of which are equipped with sewing machines to just drop in and use.

Some ideaLAB locations (like my local one) have fancy machines like embroidery, quilting, and industrial sewing machines. There's also lots of other tools, from basic hand tools to laser cutters and 3d printers (again, location dependent.) There's always staff on hand to help during open lab hours. All free to use. Really an impressive system that I use frequently.

https://denverlibrary.org/idealab

cuvinny2• 1 month ago

My library has something similar. Sewing and embroidering machines, 3D printers and even a CNC machine. Most are free to use as long as you bring the material, the only one that I can remember having a cost is the laser cutter but even then it was under 10 bucks an hour. They have a bunch of other things like being able to check out a pass the the state parks and some museum passes.

This is the Charleston County library system.

random__duck• 1 month ago

That sounds so cool, are they building an entire fablab in there?

cuvinny2• 1 month ago

Yea, they built a new library near me a couple years ago and have a full makers space in a separate large room. I guess "check out" is the wrong term as you can't take the machines home. You just go there and use them or have the trained librarian operate the machine.

EvanAnderson• 1 month ago

The Greene County Ohio Public Library (Xenia, OH) did something like this a few years ago and other libraries in the area (Dayton Metro and Troy-Miami County) started similar spaces, too. They all have a similar array of machines-- CNC, 3D printing, dye sub printing, laser engravers, vinyl cutters, sewing and embroidery, video and photo editing, etc. It's amazing to me that within a five year timespan all of this became available to anybody in the community for the cost of materials.

Havoc• 1 month ago

55% of Finns visit libraries at least once a month.

Wait what? That seems insanely high even for a progressive society.

As a reference point UK is at 30% on YEARLY STATS NOT MONTHLY

In England, 30% of adults aged 16 and over used a public library service at least once in the previous 12 months.

deanc2• 1 month ago

I live in Finland and even I am sceptical of this figure. Maybe that’s because I go once a year.

I will say it’s very very common for folks to use the library for its primary purpose of renting books - which of course requires a visit twice in a month - once to collect and once to return.

fragmede2• 1 month ago

On the return trip, you collect another set of books, making it a habit.

fragmede2• 1 month ago

On the return trip, you collect another set of books, which you then also have to return in two weeks.

timonoko• 1 month ago

The report is deliberately misleading by the red-green government. If you read between the lines it is a poll among the library visitors.

stevekemp3• 1 month ago

I moved to Finland, and starting when my child was about three years old I took him to Oodi every weekend.

The soft-play area was heaven for him, and he liked flicking through the donald-duck comic books.

Even now, when he's nine, I go every month or two with him for an afternoon. He has no shortage of books at home, but he gets to run around, look at books, and play with other kids. He enjoys himself enormously.

a966• 1 month ago

I'm probably in the middle of the stat myself and know people from both sides. My first thought was also that a lot of parents and children visit libraries almost daily and pupils and students visit libraries on school breaks and after school alone or with friends.

On one hand, you have a lot of busy and tired adults and a lot of old people that might not use libraries (often), but you also have the massively active younger demographics. I don't know how that would balance out and how the stats were counted. Maybe they fit somehow.

JackLau• 1 month ago

Iowa has this too, the Des Moines Public Library has a Library of Things with over 50 items.

jameszol2• 1 month ago

I’m trying to privately build a public library in a rural Idaho community. Borrowing sewing machines has been a popular request, as soon as we have space for them. It’s exciting to see that it’s a worldwide desire and not just a rural trend. Very cool to read about how Finland is doubling down on investing in libraries and skill building tools like sewing machines!

WaitWaitWha• 1 month ago

How are you going about this? Asking because I thought about doing something similar (e.g., Makerspaces, hackerspaces, Fab Labs).

jameszol2• 1 month ago

Luckily a few others here in Idaho have done it by way of a Friends of the Library official non-profit 501(c)(3), so I have a model to follow that works in our region and for our rural conservative conditions. The standard non-profit benefits apply: we apply for a lot of grants, we set up endowments, accept land or stock as gifts, take on capital projects like building a library. The public library can then lease from us (probably for $0) or if we put a large enough endowment fund together we would very much consider taking it all private vs just a purpose built building for the library.

p1dda• 1 month ago

Socialist wet dream. In reality someone has to pay for all these adults wasting time instead of working for a living.

tim-tday2• 1 month ago

I know this is supposed to be sarcastic, but This is actually a great framing for why we should love our libraries.

They’re decidedly NOT productive to business. They’re yours as a person. They’re your time, your leisure, your enrichment.

I suppose they’re productive to business in the long run because the create more thoughtful and effective people so maybe they’re not all good.

Still, a good reason to lean into them.

queenkjuul9• 1 month ago

Hilarious. Tool libraries exist and are quite successful here in capitalist US of A (and, apparently, in capitalist Finland. You didn't think they were communists or something, did you?)

monssooon6• 1 month ago

It may lead to less demand for things like sewing machines which in turn may lead to less competition to less productivity, the producers innovating less, less GDP less happy people... Where have we seen this type of thinking before... In socialist States... I agree... But how do we create supply and demand? Letting China produce cheaply and open our boarders for a couple of decades, maybe... Maybe we are in a doom loop where we need a poorer generation or two before people turn around... It is interesting times. The most interesting is how people view the same things completely opposite. Some are super happy about the trend others super frustrated... Imho it is a part of the great reset and the big debt cycle. Maybe an attempt to soften the blow?!

akouri• 1 month ago

Libraries around me have just become a homeless shelter. Pretty sad because the buildings themselves are actually quite nice and I'd use them often if it weren't for the high likelihood of being harassed.

TurdF3rguson6• 1 month ago

You mean being asked for spare change makes you avoid that library? Why not just give them your change?

ghaff4• 1 month ago

I don't have any change on me.

hsuduebc23• 1 month ago

Sure, that's exactly what you want in library.

I understand it's tough for them but some of the homeless people are not people you enjoy you want to be around. I don't understand this need to spread this sentiment.

llbbdd• 1 month ago

Indistinguishable from a joke

MomsAVoxell2• 1 month ago

This is a sad state of affairs.

I hope wherever you live can pull out of the dive.

Libraries are amazing and I would say that the fact they are so under funded and eventually turn into little more than a place to sleep, is very unfortunate.

I have woken up so much, sitting in a library for days, reading, reading, reading ..

If it weren’t for libraries, I’d have only read 1984 and not Down and Out in Paris and London, nor the one about Aspidispira, works with gravitas which fundamentally changed my opinion about personal responsibility at a respectable age.

I wonder if any of those homeless folk get a chance to talk to the ghosts of those aisles. Probably the library worked, once.

steinwinde• 1 month ago

Please critisize the harassment, not libraries for providing shelter to homeless people. A well managed library has a degree of supervision that allows the visitor to do something about harassment. This level of control is also important for homeless people, who are subject to harassment more than most. A reasonably well run library is also no place to consume alcohol or drugs in plain sight. In these respects libraries are so much more apt places than train/subway stations - something acknowledged by large user groups: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/serv...

15 years ago I lived in East London, and when I came to borrow books (e.g. to the "Idea Store Whitechapel"), I felt some sort of proudness seeing homeless people hanging out there, listening to mp3, having a coffee in the cheap cafeteria or - yes! - reading: True inclusion seemed to work in so few places in the country - at least there it was tangible. I live in Marseille/France now and haven't noticed this here; but a homeless person is not necessarily obvious - next time I visit, I'll have a look!

petcat2• 1 month ago

A well managed library has a degree of supervision that allows the visitor to do something about harassment.

Library staff in my city are instructed not to do anything themselves about homeless. If there's a problem then they just call the police, who are equipped to handle it. Same as the city bus drivers are not going to enforce paying fares or making sure no riders are causing problems. They just pull over and call the police.

Their is no polite "middle ground" where a librarian can just confidently ask a disruptive homeless person to vacate the library. 9 times out of 10 that confrontation will escalate into a full blown incident. That's why the rule is always just to call the police.

queenkjuul9• 1 month ago

I always wanted to start a musical instrument library. I loved working in a music store, helping people pick out the right instruments for what they're trying to accomplish, but always constrained by their budget. We had a per-semester rental program for school band students, where we'd take a deposit and rental fees but we'd handle the maintenance and families could save a ton versus buying. Something similar where like, you want to loan out a particular amp or pedal or synth or cymbal or something to go record a record for a week, the library would be there to help you access gear you couldn't normally afford, and I'd be there to keep everything working and help you find the right tool for the job.

Maybe someday.

bzzzt4• 1 month ago

I think musical instruments, especially digital ones like synthesizers or effects but also guitars and other acoustic instruments, have become a lot more affordable the last decade without severely impacting quality. You don't really need the expensive stuff anymore when you can record a quality recording with a second hand iPad and a below $100 microphone.

Rental of expensive stuff will always be expensive too due to insurance, maintenance and fraud. It's not really helping to make stuff more accessible, more a convenience for the pro's that need stuff for a gig.

queenkjuul9• 1 month ago

There's still a lot of crap cheap guitars out there, and some truly dreadful cheap amps

LPisGood• 1 month ago

My very small town growing up had sewing machines and they eventually even got a 3D printer. In high school I sewed a heart shaped pillow for a valentines day present; the library provided a bin of free fabric/stuffing as well as the machine. Libraries are awesome.

karunamurti• 1 month ago

In Japan there's a karaoke chain that rents sewing machine.

trueno• 1 month ago

i love the one HN thread title a day that hits whatever this mark is. i love this lmao

buildsjets• 1 month ago

Too bad the title got censored.

YeahThisIsMe• 1 month ago

Noo, don't tell the major VC website about libraries.

white_tiger• 1 month ago

cool

stein1946• 1 month ago

I am not sure I like the direction the modern libraries are taking.

Libraries should be places where people pickup books and read them, that's it.

They should not be community centers, DYI hobby centers, convention/exhibition places.

I feel they have been co-opted by people who have no interest in knowledge acquisition.

eks391• 1 month ago

Libraries might not be a business but they still have to compete for funding. If those funding them think they are no longer relevant, the alternative is to slowly lose funding and die. People don't care about books anymore, so if the library must dangle an enticement to keep people engaged enough to retain the instilled indeed that knowledge should be freely available instead of siloed (and the other benefits of libraries), so be it.

Adapt or die is the way of life.

badlibrarian• 1 month ago

Andrew Carnegie funded 2,500+ public libraries and many were built with lecture halls, auditoriums, and meeting rooms on purpose. The public library was a civic institution from day one.

raegis• 1 month ago

Libraries have been renting non-books for a long time. Different communities have different needs. It's not a big deal. Some libraries in the Los Angeles area lend sewing machines, bike tools, and other useful stuff. The main branch library has 3d printers and other tech stuff ordinary folks can't afford. And of course, they have various workshops on numerous topics for adults and children.

Given all the stuff I've taken advantage of, if the libraries here were only for borrowing books, they would seem kind of useless. And this is from someone who has the max 30 books checked out right now.

john-tells-all• 1 month ago

The Los Angles Public Library lends an amazing variety of tools -- https://lacountylibrary.org/tools/

- glue gun

- Crikut cutter

- pots and pans

- tape measure

- bike repair kit

- bolt cutters

- musical instruments <3

totetsu• 1 month ago

It’s easier to take time to pick up a book and learn something if your life is going smoothly in other areas. If all your clothes need mending it can make a barrier of embarrassment to go to a public place like a library. With the hollowing out of the middle class, people live in smaller housing and move more, lose their inter generational resources. If there’s a trusted social institution that is knowen for borrow and lending, and people have a need to borrow tools for their everyday life it seems not such a deviation from the purpose of libraries

probably_wrong3• 1 month ago

I'd argue the opposite: because they are focusing on knowledge acquisition they are trying to separate the medium (the books) from the objective.

40 years ago books were the only way to obtain knowledge. Nowadays even those who come for the books do so with a laptop for taking notes. If I were a librarian, it would be naive of me not to ask the question "if all the books are online, then why are we here?"

Anecdotally, on the topic of "knowledge acquisition", I used to run a drawing group. Finding a place to do so was a major problem because nobody wanted to invite strangers home and not everybody could afford the ~$20 it would take to stay at a cafe for long. A library with a meeting room would have been our dream solution and perhaps would have kept the group from dissolving.

emswift2• 1 month ago

As others have said, reference is something we can do easily on the internet. But I would add that sitting down and studying a text with others is something best done in person. It’s a nice social experience and better achieves the goal (also gets lazy nerds like me out of the house).

fnord77• 1 month ago

South SF library has sewing machines

SFPL used to have tools until it got ruined.

panchtatvam• 1 month ago

That's one way to convert a library from home of books to home of everything non-bookish. No way the society is growing dumber day by day.

a966• 1 month ago

It's not books or things. It's (>90%) books and little bits of many kinds of other things.

darkvertex• 1 month ago

The main library here in Montreal has a sick makerspace with 3D printers (plastic and resin), wood CNC machines, a digital embroidery machine, button maker, shirt press, hole driller, laser cutter, vacuform and vinyl cutter: https://square.banq.qc.ca/fablab

It's a pretty dope library. They also let you borrow movies, videogames for all consoles and even board games, vinyl records and a few music instruments.

ggandhi• 1 month ago

I signed my daughter up for a library card when she was two. She can't read yet.

I believed you can't teach a child to love libraries. You keep taking them, and let the room do the rest. That room do wonders and it did that to me and I am sure will do that to her too.

a966• 1 month ago

A relative used to drive the library bus where I grew up in. Getting a library card must be one of my earliest memories. Along with learning the alphabet and skiing.

mongol• 1 month ago

I am not very fond of this idea. I think libraries are for books, or possibly media. I can see the utility but I think it distracts from the actual purpose.

MikeTheGreat• 1 month ago

I used to think this way too. When I was growing up, libraries were for books.

And that one room where they had periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and such) but you had to read those there in that room.

And encyclopedias, for kids to use for their research reports.

And a story hour for kids (and, let's face it, for the parents).

And that one computer in the back that had Oregon Trail and Summer Olympic Games on it.

But mostly I remembered the books, and that's what I felt like libraries should be about.

Now I feel like a library's purpose is to support it's community. Mostly they lend books because that's what they're known for and they're very good at it. They're expanding into eBooks because that's another big thing people read today. And music CDs and DVDs which is very similar to lending books, and people like those.

Expanding out to lending things is a bit of a mind-bender for me too, but I think it's in line with what libraries have always done - help the community.

arghnoname2• 1 month ago

I'm torn on this. Often I feel like the parent, but I recognize maybe I'm being stubborn.

You say libraries purpose is to help the community. If that's true, what you're saying makes sense. On the other hand, if their purpose is to promote literacy and reading, well, this is off mission.

I think of the former mission as more being a community center. My mother loves this form and spends a lot of time at her local library. I'm a curmudgeon and an intellectual snob apparently. I don't even like them having popular books, but I'm trying to be less rigid and more honest here and admit that some scope creep is probably healthy and the question is just where you draw the line.

RetroTechie• 1 month ago

but I think it distracts from the actual purpose.

The purpose of a library is what it does.

They used to lend books, to promote literacy & education. For youngsters to explore fields of knowledge & discover what they're interested in. Offer a selection of newspapers & magazines nobody can afford on their own.

Fablabs, places for students to work on their laptop, workshops etc fit right into this.

But the community center aspect has always been a thing. These days that might be extended in hosting a repair cafe, puzzles / board games, whatever that local community regards worthwhile.

If you think that's a no-go, maybe public libraries aren't for you. Or just stick to the book area.

MomsAVoxell2• 1 month ago

I remember a day, long, long ago in a dusty, lonely outback Australian town, when Mum would send me down to the library on a Saturday morning to loan the iron, a kettle, and the last weeks’ papers, which she’d return on the very early Monday morning after putting me off on the .. two hour .. bus ride to school.

Now I’m sitting in a room full of hard core technology, wondering if I shouldn’t talk to my local technical museum about setting up an 8-bit lending library with a catalog of fully operational machines ..

infl8ed• 1 month ago

My local library has a few interesting things like this including a podcast kit (i.e. professional microphones and mixers) you can book in conjunction with a room booking and also a thermal imaging camera you can check out to "identify energy efficiency in the home by finding gaps in insulation, comparing the performance of different walls and rooms in the home, finding air leaks and identifying water leaks or damp issues". I approve wholeheartedly of these and similar initiatives.

monssooon6• 1 month ago

Ida Aukens prophecy has already come true. They own nothing and are happy about it...

probably_wrong3• 1 month ago

You are being unfair to the spirit of the original quote.

Yes, the quote is naive in expecting a world where those who own share with those who rent without nefarious motives. But sharing, particularly in this context when profit is out of the equation, is a great idea. I don't have the money nor space for my own 3D printer, but thanks to my local library I own objectively more 3D printed stuff than I would without them.

monssooon6• 1 month ago

Its a paper, much more than a quote

emswift2• 1 month ago

What?

I’d love to be able to borrow a sewing machine, tools, etc. I live in a small flat and I don’t need permanent ownership of those things. They spend 99.5% of the time sat taking up space. What good is that? For a lot of machines it’s not good to leave them idle, or sat in a shed collecting mould and rust.

monssooon6• 1 month ago

It is exactly what the WeF meant too. The opposite world is one where we can own what we want at any point in time, kinda like in the past. They say that is unsustainabl... I just disagree-I think it would be great if each generation would be better of than the last.. You are happy in your tiny flat not owning that much... I'm not disputing that. I just say that is what the wef predicted would happen. That is all. I'm glad you at happy like that... If you continue reading Idas Aukens prophecy, she goes on to talk about a society outside of the happy own-nothing-living where people live a different life... I just hope there will be room for both.

akho• 1 month ago

I'm sorry, but that's not a library. It is useful, but calling these centers "libraries" just accelerates the death of actual libraries, and distracts from copyright reform.

TFNA• 1 month ago

Finnish libraries still have books (and other media) and a very efficient system of moving them around the country to anywhere people want to borrow them.

zajio1am2• 1 month ago

Tool rental is a service that is commonly provided by private sector. I do not see a reason why this should be provided by a government. This seems like unfair competition to e.g. community hackerspaces.

brap• 1 month ago

Agree, and I also don’t see why government should be involved in book rental. Why books and not say, car rental? What about jetski rental?

(If the argument is that subsidizing books helps the poor, I’m all for it, a nonprofit or a charity would be a much better framework)

This is the public sector M.O, instead of admitting something is obsolete they grab more scope and funding.

My local post office now sells iPhones. And why shouldn’t they? Nobody stopped them when they just sold SIM cards, and then cases and chargers. It’s like a law of nature.

IshKebab2• 1 month ago

Because being able to read book is good for society.

a nonprofit or a charity would be a much better framework

Why?

I do agree that libraries (in the UK at least) have mostly failed to see the writing on the wall and diversify. I used to live near a library that was on the edge of a super popular park. They had a "give us improvement suggestions" thing and I spoke to them about taking advantage of the park - it would have been a prime spot to open a cafe attached to the library. They actually couldn't comprehend that idea. Like, that's not what libraries are.

zajio1am2• 1 month ago

At least in EU, private book/media rental is not legal without special licensing from copyright holders, while public libraries have exception for this.

iad• 1 month ago

Libraries are so unfair to Mr. Bezos. They should obviously be demolished. But I'm concerned that their demolition would be an expansion of government "doing things". It would be best if interested parties simply be allowed to demolish them at will without interference from the state.

myself248• 1 month ago

Speaking as a co-founder of a large community hackerspace, we don't have the volunteer bandwidth to manage the additional overhead of tool lending. Please, please, please let the libraries offer more alternatives. It's exactly their mission.

jvvw2• 1 month ago

It's a bit weird to see the BBC reporting on this happening in Finland, when plenty of 'Libraries of Things' exist in the UK! I think they tend to be run as community efforts rather than by public libraries. though.

daveoc64• 1 month ago

The BBC Future website is not aimed at users in the UK, and features content produced by the BBC's commercial arm.

Users in the UK can read it without ads, but it's not generally promoted or linked to by bbc.co.uk

jvvw2• 27 days ago

Ah that makes more sense then!

nekusar• 1 month ago

While in the USA, republicans are threatening funding of public libraries cause LGBTQ books are in there!

GASP, SHOCKER!

This article is also directly related to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48596911 "The room the economy can’t see"

Capitalists won't willingly fund 3rd spaces without a demonstrable profit. So they're at the behest of public funding (read: government). And when the new ruling party gets in, they can demand their bullshit on threat of funding or be shut down.

mkovach• 1 month ago

My local library doesn't have a sewing machine, but it does lend out projectors, game consoles, a telescope, musical instruments, and bicycles.

You can even check out a banjo, which seems like the sort of decision that says a great deal about a community's acceptance and tolerance.

Electronics: https://alpl.org/equipment/ Instruments: https://alpl.org/musical-instruments/ Bikes: https://alpl.org/borrow-a-bike/

xtiansimon• 1 month ago

The Olive Free Library in the Catskills, NY will lend a fishing pole. (The Catskills is considered the birthplace of “American” Fly Fishing traditions).

utopiah3• 1 month ago

It's such an absolutely weird tension...

The libraries in Belgium at least are absolutely amazing!

They are filled with :

- books (obviously) beautifully curated

- comics

- magazines

- sometimes even audiobooks in the form of CDs

- sometimes also events with authors on absolutely important topics like ... what it means to be human

and they are also

- basically free (few Euros per year, at most, and if you cannot pay)

- staffed with people who absolutely love the mission

... and empty.

It's totally nuts. They are basically full of top materials with dedicated staff, but nobody goes there. We even have toy libraries and... it's the same. Sure during some moments of the week it's relatively busy but mostly empty. Meanwhile we can order online any book or toy or video games for very little money... but also we don't use them for very long.

It's a very strange tension that we somehow manage to setup a very inclusive infrastructure for knowledge in few centuries, or arguably decades, yet in few years we totally cancelled ALL that effort.

Now libraries are looking for events because nobody "needs" content anymore.

userbinator2• 1 month ago

The fact that libraries are not full of people doesn't negate their function. A hard drive doesn't need to be continually read and written to serve its purpose either.

utopiah3• 1 month ago

The fact that libraries are not full of people doesn't negate their function.

Is this what I said or even implied?

_DeadFred_2• 1 month ago

My local library had a heritage seed bank. More of an exchange I guess where people donated their heritage seeds but it seemed pretty cool. Will try my hand next year. Would be cool to get inter-library exchanges going.

NishanStepak• 1 month ago

For me it is just media. No things.

laughing_man• 1 month ago

I would love to have a place I could rent that kind of stuff. There are a lot of hobbies I'd like to explore, but I don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for equipment I'll never use again if I decide it's not for me.

rahimnathwani2• 1 month ago

  Finland's investment reflects this commitment: in 2025, the country spent nearly €371m ($430m/£321m) on its public libraries – that's €65.78 ($76/£57) per person, compared to the average £10 ($13.5) per person spent in the UK, and a total public library expenditure of $15.2bn (£11.4bn ), or $45 (£34) per person in the US.

Are those numbers correct?

In San Francisco, the 2025 public library budget was over $240 per resident per year.

raveren• 1 month ago

FWIW this is somewhat happening in Lithuania as well. Two biggest libraries in the tiny country stock fablabs, recording studios etc.

marysol5• 1 month ago

cries in Great Britain

Lucky to even find an open library with books now.

NuclearPM• 1 month ago

I bought a sewing machine a few years ago. I felt really dumb having to spend (many) hours trying to set up the bobbin/thread.

Renting a sewing machine from the library

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